Beards, Booze and Blues: The Hitchhikers' Guide

Share Your World 2017 March 27

Does your first or middle name have any significance (or were you named after another family member)?

Which one? I have enough middle names to fill a small phonebook! But I will go with the middle name I use in my everyday life, Edward. Edward was name of my Granddad and my sister’s middle name is my Grandma’s first name, poor old Nan will have to wait for Great Grandchildren for her name to be used.

Music or silence while working?

Depends on what I am working on, at my proper job I feel music adds to the atmosphere and while doing odds and sods around the house I have something on… but if I am concentrating I prefer a darkened room with a single slight and no music or dos to distract me.

If you had a special place for your three most special possessions (not including photos, electronics, people or animals), what would they be?

I wouldn’t say I have any real special possessions as I try not to get attached to objects as they are, after all merely objects. If you were to say anything I would say my special possessions would be my Tenor Saxophone, a Oberon beer glass given to me by Andrea and probably my Grandfather’s watch (not a clock which stood for 90 years on the floor). The later is in my pyjama draw for some reason as I don’t really wear a watch… I never have and despite this I have always been a good time keeper.

The Never List: What are things you know you never will do?

I am guessing you mean voluntarily never doing things:

Bungee Jumping/ Jumping out of a plane- partially due to the risk of mechanical failure but mostly due to vertigo…. just call me Jimmy Stewart.

Camping- I like my creature comforts too much and it would also play havoc with back and dodgy knee. When I was a child we used to go on caravan holidays which would tend to be one week with Nan & Granddad and the second week with Mum & Dad and even as a small child I hated it, the closed in environment and no sense of privacy… the shared campsite toilets and washrooms which never had any hot water… just no.

Wow! That’s fantastic and I bet there is quite a legacy behind it. Most people get really excited when they hear that I am the fifth in line with my name and that my son is the 6th. We are working our way to beat the Louis of France.

Unfortunately my names aren’t much of a legacy, Nick is there because mum and dad couldn’t decide between that and my first name. Llewellyn is a fairly common welsh surname as is my actual surname. I think de vere got in the mix because someone down the line thought it sounded good.